Press releases WHAT'S WITH THAT?
TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF THE MODERN WORLD - WITH YOUR HELP
much higher than your door tops.’’
Dave Crooks of St Clair says ‘‘testosteronefilled male fantails in heat will attack their reflection in a window, mistaking it for a rival fantail’’.
Both explanations seem highly likely.
We get swamped by media releases every day. Probably only one in every four or five actually gets used by an ODT reporter as the basis for a real news story.
Here’s one from the ‘‘well, they would say that’’ department I received the other day. It’s from the New Zealand Alcohol Beverages Council, comprising Pernod Ricard New Zealand, DB Breweries, Lion, Independent Liquor, Foodstuffs (NZ) Ltd, the Brewers Association of NZ, the NZ Food & Grocery Council, Spirits New Zealand and BrownForman NZ.
Under the heading ‘‘Study confirms drinking moderately, responsibly the way to go’’, the press release says the group has ‘‘given its verdict’’ on a recent study in The Lancet on the effects of alcohol overconsumption.
Executive director Nick Leggett says The Lancet study has ‘‘the usual shockhorror tactics used to try and scare people away from alcohol’’, although it ‘‘actually confirms something we all already know — drinking moderately and responsibly is the way to go’’.
Mr Leggett criticised the study. He said while it found increased mortality for those who drank 10plus glasses a week, it failed to compare those who drink moderately and abstainers, ‘‘because the unhelpful and uncomfortable truth is that those who drink moderately enjoy better life expectancy than nondrinkers’’.
Is that really the case? Is that the ‘‘drink red wine for better health’’ argument?
He said Kiwis who followed public health guidelines around healthy weekly consumption of alcohol should ‘‘not be concerned by this study’’. Moderation was the key, with two standard drinks a day for women, and no more than 10 a week, and three a day for men, and no more than 15 each week.
Good on the council for pushing for responsibility. But is drinking that much alcohol every week really moderation?
As I said, call me cynical if you wish — well, they would say that.